Monday, December 9, 2013

CBNAH Interview with Rob "Rawrb" Kersey of Psychostick

What happens if you mix over the top humor with heavy metal? You get the band Psychostick. In the last ten years, the Arizona band has released three full length albums, three EPs, and either shared the stage or toured with a lot of known names in metal. The band has a strong online presence with their popular Youtube channel with over ten million views. Recently, they launched a successful campaign on Indiegogo. Which the band will be making a new album and building their own recording studio. CBNAH staff writer Peter Drakopoulos caught up with lead singer Rob "Rawrb" Kersey to chat about the band, Indiegogo project, the Alfredo Afro web comic and more.

Peter Drakopoulos: First off, how’s the band been touring for the past few weeks?

Rob "Rawrb" Kersey: No, actually. We’ve been off the road for the past couple of moths because we’re focusing on the Indiegogo project and writing and recording. We still do a couple of dates here and there but not on tour.

PD: When I first heard the band’s music it has a lot of humour. Does this humour comes from what you guys experienced in your daily lives?

RK: Yes, it’s pretty much a lot of it is based on real life experiences. For example, Two Ton Paperweight is about Josh’s [Guitarist] crappy car.

PD: You guys have a successful Indiegogo campaign with the new album and studio. Why Indiegogo instead of Kickstarter?

RK: Indiegogo is a lot more flexible. In Kickstarter, if you don’t reach your goal for funding, you don’t get anything. Indiegogo avoids that all or nothing model, so, we wanted to have at least a little bit money in case, you know, if we didn’t make our goal. We kind of took the safe route.

PD: You have a web comic called Alfredo Afro. Can you tell us a bit about the comic?

RK: Sure. The web comic that I draw is basically just me having another creative outlet. It’s really just about random stuff that happened to me or other people on tour.

PD: Do you see this web comic published in print by a publisher?

RK: Honestly, I don’t know. It could happen eventually, I guess. The problem is a lot of the material is pretty vulgar. I don’t know who would wanted to publish those unless it’s one of those alternative publishers. But it really all depends on the situation.

PD: You have a popular Webcast on your Youtube channel. Can you tell is the origins of the Webcast?

RK: Webcasting is something we’ve been doing for the last five, six years. It started through a website like Stickam. But once Youtube introduce the ability to do livestream, so, we do it from them now. The whole idea behind it’s just to hangout with our fans and interact with them. We used to do this thing called Druken Webcast. Where people would be able buys us some shots through the website and we would say their name and then take a shot online and get pretty messed up. [Laughs.]

PD: The band has been around since 2000. Have you ever thought you would be this successful?

RK: I knew that at some point, early on in our career, when we first formed. With the recording of our very first album, and I remember listening to it and I just had a feeling that if the right person heard this at the right time, I think we go somewhere. But wonder it would be so cool if it happens. But… The record didn’t get played at first, and then it got played on XM Radio and then it blew us up like crazy. Sometimes I have to sit back and go wow we’re actually doing-- I haven’t had a real day job in like six, seven years now. And being in this band I’m really grateful for it. The fact we’re still here and people are still supporting us. We’re pretty gratefully for that and I had no idea that it would go this far.

PD: What can fans expect from the band in 2014?

RK: Well, completing the studio and obviously the new album. We’re going to get that done. There will be a lot of touring, we’re trying to go to Europe. Working on that but it’s always been a struggle for us. I think we’ll be able to do it for next year. I’ve said that a few times already for the past few years. We’ll see. Next year will be the new album, lots of touring, more videos and more content.